The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
by kathryn ashworth
Summary: How will the Cranes cope in tragic cirumstances
1. Chapter 1

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

A/N: This fic is a little different from my others. It is based on the events in my life of the past six months, writing this has been cathartic. Also apologies for those who read this before 10.30pm GMT, accidentally uploaded the wrong file, my sincerest aplogies.

Timeline: Mid-season 10

Usual disclaimer applies, and once again I have nothing of value, unless you value odd socks, old copies of Top Gear Magazine and many, many pictures of Jenson Button.

It started as a normal morning for the Cranes, Martin complained about his breakfast, even though she had been married to Niles for the past six months Daphne still insisted on bringing Bran Flakes over for his breakfast, knowing full well if it was up to him his breakfast would consist of a multitude of fattening foods, made all that better for him by virtue of being fried.  
Frasier left the apartment at 10am, knowing that Daphne would be arriving within 10 minutes to help Maritn do his excerises. Meanwhile Frasier made his way to Cafe Nervosa for his daily coffee with Niles, although he was happy that Niles and Daphne were so happy together he couldn't face another morning of his brother's incessant gushing.

Daphne as usual made her way up to Frasier's apartment, on opening the door she was met by the strange sight of Eddie sat in front of Martin's chair barking loudly, clearly something was wrong, Martin wasn't reacting at all. She rang Niles' cellphone, thankfully Frasier chose that moment to enter the cafe. She decided not to tell them the bad news then, but chose to wait until they arrived. On entering the apartment Niles and Frasier found Daphne sat on the sofa staring into space, clutching a cold cup of coffee. Whilst Niles went to comfort his wife, Frasier went over to his father's chair and discovered what had caused Daphne's evident shock.

"Niles, can you come into the kitchen, I want a quiet word" when they entered the kitchen Niles could tell from the expression on his brother's face that it wasn't good news,

"Niles, I think you have probably worked this out by now, but Dad's died, I'm going to dial 911, I think Daphne needs you, and well visa versa."

The next few days were filled with calls from and to, distraught relatves, along with the funeral plans. Daphne had become very withdrawn, despite her frequent comments about him, and seeing the way he was with Freddie she knew he would be a wonderful grandfather when she and Niles had children. Niles was clearly just in a daze, he would go over to Frasier's intending to help with the funeral arrangements, but when he arrived he would sit on the sofa and stare into space, or turn around an leave almost as soon as he arrived. Daphne hated seeing Niles in ths state he was in, he was just a shadow of himself, he even stopped going to Nervosa.

All too soon the day of the funeral arrived. Frasier had done all the organisation. The service was to take part at 1pm in the same church that he and Hester had married and where her funeral had been held. As this was the first time since both Niles and Frasier had been since then it further opened the raw wounds associated with the death of a parent.

The church was packed to the rafters, there were police buddies, high school friends, men he served with inn Korea, even a couple of guys from the dog park, who Daphne recognised and of course, the crowd from both Dukes and McGintys.

All too soon it was time for Daphne to deliver her eulogy, as neither Frasier or Niles felt up it.

"Martin Crane was many things to many people, a husband, a father, a policeman and a soldier, but to all he was a friend. He came into my life 10 years ago, he was my client, I wish I knew then what an amazing influence he had on everyone he met. I may have called him a grumpy old sod, but I could tell from the start that he had a good heart. I know we will all miss him very much, but especially his sons, Frasier and Niles, who are the wonderful men they are today because of him" Thankfully Daphne was able to stem the tears until she sat back down, when they burst forth with a vengance. Niles held tightly to her hand, both to comfort her and as a gesture that he was proud of the fact she could get up and say such lovely things.

Then it was on to the cemetary, Frasier had managed to get the plot next to Hester's so his parents could be together once again. Before they made their way to the wake Niles insisted they lay flowers on Hester's grave, as it was a Friday and he went up every week.

Despite Niles' protestaions when Frasier told him where the wake would be, the group made thier way to McGintys. Frasier insisted the assemble guests make a toast, as it was quite obvious that most of them would be in no fit state later in the day, most shunned the offer of champagne instead accepting cans of Ballentines that Duke had been keeping in case of an event like this, they had agreed that whomever died first there would be a toast using their favourite beer, natually it had been kept in a safe place since it hadn't been made for a couple of years and both knew they wouldn't be able to resist one last can.

As always happens the solemnity became seconary to reminicing about amusing stories involving Martin, Fraiser and Niles both attempted to tell the story of thier ill-fated fishing trip. Natrually they both blamed each other for losing the car keys, and Niles finally admitted to Daphne that the only reason he went was to try and impress her, evidenty this wasn't a shock.

Eventually the group drifted back to their homes, or in the case of the people who were clearly regulars, stayed to take advanatge of the open bar.

As usual I crave feedback.


	2. Chapter 2

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Usual disclaimer applies, I still have nothing of value, unless you want some Danish spare change

It was almost a year since Martin had died and Frasier was still having trouble coming to terms with it. This wasn't helped by the fact that he had inherited Eddie by virtue of the face the Montana didn't accept dogs. Natrually he had got rid of the chair, not only because he found it triggered too many memories. Despite the fact that he his apartment was precisley as he wanted it there was still a gaping hole in his life, at one point he even considered moving, so he could make a new start, but couldn't bring himself to leave, especially as Niles needed him more than ever.

Niles and Daphne had suffered a devastating loss. On thanksgiving they had announced that she was expecting their first child and natrually the whole family was ecstatic, especially Freddie who had long since given up on the hope of having a younger brother or sister to look up to him, he could at least be an influence on his cousin.

The weeks leading up to Christmas were filled witht the usual hustle and bustle, Niles made twice as much work for himself insisting that Daphne not do a thing, not even help decorate the tree. Unfortunatley two weeks before Christmas Daphne woke up in the middle of the night complaining of terrible stomach cramps, and insisted Niles take her to the hospital. Niles was reluctant at first, but qiuckly realised that something may be wrong witht the baby.

By the time they arrived at the hospital Daphne was bleeding profusley so she was rushed to the maternity unit. After what seemed to be an agonisingly long wait, to Niles, but was no more than a few minutes, the doctor finally arrived, closely followed by Frasier, who had evidently been on a date, given his apperance and the fact that it took four attempts to reach him.

"What happening?" Frasier asked

"Daphne woke up with stomach cramps and she started bleeding in the car, the doctor is in with her now." No sooner had Niles finished recounting this to Frasier than the doctor popped his head around the curtain and asked for Dr Crane. Reflexivley both Niles anf Frasier replied "Yes" before Frasier realised that he was adressing Niles.

"Dr Crane, I hate to tell you this, but your wife has suffered a miscarriage, I thought we might be able to save the larger of the two babies, but unfortunatley not. I really am very sorry" Niles was suddenly overcome by grief. Daphne had been sedated so was thankfully unaware of what had happened.

Niles was sat quietly sobbing in the corner of the cubicle, when Frasier popped his head round to discover Niles sat stoking Daphne's hair. After many minutes Niles had finally composed himself enough to tell Frasier what happened.

The next moring when Daphne had come round and Niles told her what happened, natrually she was distraught, she confessed that there was an almost imperceptible feeling of guilt, theu had been discussing baby names a couple of days before, and the day after they told Gertrude she came into the living room to present them with some bootees she had knitted, evidently she had been expecting this news. Clearly they had been tempting fate.

Later that morning when Niles had gone to ring Gertrude, as she was spending Christmas with Billy and his partner Mark, Roz came to see Daphne, Frasier had rung her to say that he wouldn't be in work that day, when he told her why she insisted on visiting, not only was Daphne her friend, but she would want to talk to someone who understood what she was going through.

"Daphne, I know that nothing I can say will make you feel better" Roz began "but I know exactly how you feel, I've never told anyone this, not even Frasier, but I lost a baby, it was just after I left college. I was in a relationship with a guy called James, and although it wasn't planned we were both ecstatic at the prospect of being parents. We moved into a small apartment, and although we both worked long hours we still found the time to decorate the nursery." Niles thankfully came in at this point as Daphne had visibly become quite upset "I was five months along when I noticed that the baby hadn't moved in a while, so I insisted James drive me to the hospital as I was sure there was something wrong." Niles excused himself from the conversation as he found it too upsetting. "When we got to the hospital the doctor discovered that not only was my blood pressure sky high, but the baby's was too and they had no chance but to induce labour as that was the only way they could possibly save her. I had a little girl, Emily Alice, she was born at 2.15pm on January 19th and died three hours later, she was just too weak. To make it worse I only got to hold her once, but when she looked into my eyes there was pure love and trust there." The tears were now flowing rapidly down both Daphne and Roz's cheeks, one the tears of a loss that had become a constant but understated presence in a life, the other full of the anger, gulit and the sheer pain of a recent tragedy, but they were two women united by a permanent bond of loss. "My relationship with James didn't last much longer, he threw himself into his job and didn't allow himself the time to grieve, the only days he took off were the day after Emily died and the day of her funeral, instead he released his emotion in the form of anger, smashing the few frames containing photos of the three of us, throwing plates and glasses across the room, even smashing the crib his dad made forus. Daphne was now crying so hard she was shaking, Roz tried to comfort her, but she insisted it must be Niles.

Eventually after Niles calmed Daphne down, and much to everyone's surprise most of all her own Roz insisted that Niles stay. She finished her story "I can't lie to you the pain will be a constant presence in your life, but when you do have a child you will appreciate them all the more." Looking at her watch Roz realised that she had to go, not only did she have to go to the station to organise which Best Of Crane to play, but there was also a station meeting that afternoon, but she also had to pick Alice up from kindergarted, although natrually she didn't tell Niles and Daphne this.

Two days later Daphne was allowed to go home. Niles in his usual organised way had cancelled the decorators who were supposed to be coming in to paint the spare room to turn it into a nursery just after Christmas.

Christmas was a subdued affair for the family, after lunch they went to lay flowers at both Martin and Hester's graves, Daphne also insisted that they leave two teddies and two pairs of bootees too, as they didn't know the sex of the babies they decided it was a boy and a girl and had the names they had chosen stiched onto the teddies, Grace Hester and Daivd Martin. Althougj Daphne had never met Hester the influence on her youngest son was clear so they had instantly agreed on what her middle name would be if they had a girl, the same theory applied if they had a boy, even if Daphne knew Martin a little better, to say the least.

As she had been through exactly the same thing Roz was invaluable in keeping Daphne from reacting in an inappropriate way, despite what she had been told about the way James behaved it seemed pretty tempting at times.

Niles was becoming increasingly frustrated, as Daphne was retreating into herself, apart from occasional trips to the grocery store, she barley left the apartment, even watching TV or a movie was unbearable, as any mention of pregnancy or childern would cause her to fall into a deep depression. Niles could only hope that this period wouldn't last a disproportionatley long time.

Please R&R


End file.
